The traditional foldable viewers were box-type viewers that included a pair of optical lenses locked in one position to view stereoscopic images appearing slides, film, and or transparencies. Users hold the viewer up to a light source so that the translucent image can shine through and produce a three-dimensional image. The three-dimensional images are limited by the perspective taken in the transparencies. The foldable viewers designed to view three-dimensional images from photographic images, not on smart devices.
The conventional box-type viewers were constructed from single cardboard or paper stock with flaps and tabs to fold and form the box-type viewers. Exemplary of these stereographic viewer are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,175,828, 4,242,818, 5,557,457, 5,894,365, 6,028,700, 4,973,087, and 6,069,735. Such designs amount to a relatively non-adjustable mask with lenses, often without free-moving lenses. This limits the adjustability for different faces sizes and differences in pupil distance.
The virtual reality display systems evolve into an electronic deployed head or helmet mounted display that placed a viewing screen in front of the user's eyes and recorded the movement of the user's head to move determine what should be shown on the display. When the head turned to one side, the display was refreshed to show what was in the virtual world in the direction they turned their head. In these systems, the optical lenses are in fixed positions. While image quality of the virtual reality visualization systems have improved, known systems of this prior art have certain drawbacks to the bulkiness of the housing in these virtual reality display systems. Exemplary of virtual reality headset is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. D701,206.
Virtual reality systems are used for entertainment, gaming, art, education, medicine, virtual tours, sport, and training for military, fire, and police. In recent years, virtual reality systems can be viewed on smart devices by downloading software application with virtual reality environment display. These virtual reality systems use smart device technology to run as the display screen and VR engine. Prior art devices for use with smart devices, similar to Google Cardboard™, constructed of cardboard or cardstock, are not water resistant and don't have adjustable pupillary distance. This type of cardboard viewer is usually handheld and not designed for use with straps. Other prior art devices for use with smart devices made of aluminum or molded plastic are bulky and heavy to be carried in a personal object holder such as a bag or pocket.
While the viewers of prior art for smart devices makes the virtual reality systems accessible to a larger audience, they are not crafted for everyday use.
Other prior art devices are the stand-alone unit, similar to Oculus VR, Inc™, that has built-in gyroscope and accelerometer but requires running on a computer and not mobile applications on a smart device.
Thus, there is a need for a system for an apparatus that facilitates a VR experience that is crafted for everyday use, is configured to be used with mobile applications on a smart device rather than a conventional computer, and is lightweight, adjustable, foldable, and portable.